Not the Simple Life
by BasketballGirl124
Summary: Maria is the girl in school who everyone finds weird, she likes to quote Gandhi. When she meets her idols, one of them instantly calls her beautiful. Maria and Keaton let a friendship bloom; but for Keaton a friendship isn't enough. He wants her to be his. Now how does he tell Maria?


**Not the Simple Life**

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**By BasketballGirl124**

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**Chapter One**

"_I'm unstoppable"_

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They're looking at me.  
They are all looking at me.  
What are you waiting for Maria? Start the presentation.  
"Um...Soy Maria. Yo tengo dieciocho años."  
Could you be anymore lame? That was a fail.  
My teacher looks at me as if to say, _'that's all?'_  
I shake my head at myself and sit down; my head held low.  
That was embarrassing! Everyone in the history of Earth knows I panic under pressure; that I don't like crowds.  
My first day of school was terrible.  
I wait for eighth period to be over, two minutes... one minute...thirty seconds...  
_PING! PING! PING!  
_I immediately pull out my phone and earbuds.  
I like my music loud. It blocks out everything I don't want to know; like whom Stacey is going to bang; who Gina is now dating; how Matt broke up with Meg.  
It's just things I'd rather not focus my time on.  
I make my way to my locker where of course they are.  
Who?  
The assholes of my school.  
With the luck I have, half of their lockers are near mine.  
"Excuse me, I need to get to my locker," I say pushing through them.  
A few stare at the girl getting in the middle of their...god knows _what_.  
I open my locker and smile.  
Two photos hang there, held up by one piece of scotch tape each.  
One was a photo I took. It was taken on the day that changed my life.  
I was at a music festival and one of the many acts was Emblem3. That was before they blew up with their debut album.  
I got a picture of Wesley Stromberg himself blowing a kiss to the crowd. That picture has been my background on my phone ever since.  
The other picture is of all three of the boys of Emblem3. Wesley, Drew and Keaton. I think the picture was taken while they were on X-Factor. Keaton is lying on Wesley who has on a SnapBack and his mouth is open, smiling. Drew's back is on Wes although it doesn't look as if he squashing him anymore than Keaton is.  
The guys behind me are closing in on me, whether they know it or not, one of them hits my locker so it starts to close, but I stop it and glare at him.  
I guess I messed with the right guy because they all left.  
It only takes me two minutes to get outside my school and to my car.  
I was met with the familiar and friendly face of my best friend. His name is Christopher.  
Everyone else calls him Chris, but out of habit I always call him by his full name.  
He's a year younger than me. So I'm a senior and he's a junior.  
Chris is also my next door neighbor.  
"Guys hold you up again?" He asks.  
I nod wrapping my earbuds around my phone and storing them in my back pocket.  
Christopher and I throw our bags in the backseat and climb in the front.  
"Can I please drive today?" Christopher asks.  
"Hell no! This is my car and you hardly have your permit!" I exclaim.  
"But I have it!" He says.  
"The answer is still no," I say sternly.  
He pouts and sits farther back in his seat.  
I turn on my CD player and on comes the album, _'Nothing to Lose.'_  
It's Emblem3's debut album.  
"If we are going to listen to this at least turn on _'Spaghetti,'_" Christopher complains.  
I laugh and change the track to _'Spaghetti_,' it's Chris' favorite song, only because the title has food in the title.  
We listened to _'Spaghetti'_ then I turned on _'Reason.'_  
_"I'm singing songs downtown at the corner bar, only friend I know is this damn guitar. No woman does exist for me, no woman satisfies my needs..."_ I sing out quietly.  
Chris and I make small talk while the album plays out.  
I pull into my driveway and park I front of one of the garages.  
After I'm out of the car I say goodbye to Christopher and go inside my empty house.  
It's been very empty lately.  
My grandmother died about a month and a half ago. She was 81 years old.  
Back when I was young, maybe ten or eleven she had a stroke which shot her memory. Sometimes she couldn't even remember my name.  
My family and I always had to take care of her 24/7 because my mother's two brothers refused to have anything to do with her.  
Ever since she died my mom has been keeping herself busy because she doesn't know what to do with all of this free time she suddenly has.  
I think she is still in denial that both of her parents have died.  
I make myself a small snack and start my small amount of homework.  
It doesn't even take an hour to complete.  
I check my unpopular Instagram account and see what people are up to.  
I go to my twitter account.  
People in my school don't have twitter accounts. Well some do but they never go on it.  
My account has over two-hundred followers and all I do is post my opinions on what goes on in the Emblem3 world.  
I say everyday to my followers, that Emblem3 has saved my life and made it worthwhile for me to live.  
They gave me meaning.  
I owe so much to them.  
I send out a tweet to the boys and smile.  
I get to meet them soon.  
I am lucky enough to go to a meet and greet with a Q&A session before. There is only going to be twenty people there.  
I'm going by myself, I don't mind.  
I already bought the ticket so it won't matter anyway.  
It's in less than one week.  
I also know what I want to ask them.  
I mean, you have to go prepared right?

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My week keeps dragging on and on; it seems as if it would since I can't wait until Saturday.  
It's Friday now and I'm excited. I don't show it on my face because I'm the weird girl who talks about Gandhi and loving each other.  
In my opinion it's not weird; it's not even deep; it's normal for me.  
In my opinion today's society is so judgmental that they forget about the greater things in life, like happiness.  
"Maria, why don't you share what you wrote in your journal today?" My English teacher asks.  
"No, I'm fine," I reply with a smile.  
"Okay we can play that game; Maria _please_ read what you wrote in your journal," my teacher says.  
I sigh and read aloud, _"My topic is today's society. In my option it's a pile of garbage. Today's people have become so enveloped in social media and television that they forget what the true meaning of happiness is. For example teenagers post all of these quotes on their Instagram and Facebook pages; talking about living life to their fullest whereas they actually aren't. They aren't even at mediocre. In conclusion, today's society needs to change their ways into simpler ways; they need to stop trying to change who they are to meet the standards of others."  
_The whole class seems surprised that I confidently used my voice; even my teacher seems surprised.  
"Well Maria you seem passionate about that; it was very well written as well. Care to explain where your inspiration for that heartfelt passage came from?" She asks.  
I smile and reply, "There's this thing that I'm a member of; it's called _Team Inspire_ and the whole point of it is to inspire people to live the life they want to live and to live it to the fullest. Also _Team Inspire_ helps us protect our planet."  
"I thought she was going to say she's part of a cult for Gandhi," I hear some kid say.  
Before my teacher can yell at him, the bell goes off signaling end of seventh period.  
I rush off to my locker then to my last class of the day, Spanish.  
I hardly pay attention to what my teacher is saying...I spoke.  
In front of my class; about something I'm passionate about.  
I guess whenever you add Emblem3, Team Inspire or changing the world into the mix **I'm unstoppable.**

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**Hope you enjoyed, please drop a review, they are greatly appreciated!**

**Btw the two pictures I described are in the cover art. I actually was lucky enough to get a picture of Wes blowing kiss to the crowd it's in the cover art btw. If you would like to see an enlarged version of the photo of Wes you can go to my instagram or twitter accounts. My name on Instagram is tsalvati and on twitter its TaraSalvati **

**R&R please!**

**Peace! **

**~BasketballGirl124**


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